One of the many objectives for my new home network design was low power consumption. 90% of the devices need to be running 24 x 7. Electricity is not only expensive but I also see it as a challenge to be as energy efficient as possible.
Pulled from the Vendor data sheets for the equipment I calculated the following ‘potential’ power consumption in watts:
All of the above devices connect to a new APC Smart UPS 1500. This model was chosen for its ability to output 1000 watts. Given the potential total of 474.01 watts this gives me 50% of head room should I need to add additional devices in the future.
I’d also planned to run my gaming PC rig from the UPS for surge protection and guaranteed power output. It alone has a 550 watt PSU but will only be running whilst I’m using the rig.
Should the supply power fail I’ll just switch it off to save battery utilization on the UPS. I only have the PC powered on when I’m at home anyway.
So how much power is actually used?
Currently the UPS is reporting 140 watts total power consumption. This amount will likely fluctuate depending demands made of the equipment but I’m pleasantly surprised.
The POE switch is 75% utilized by IP cameras and wireless access points.
The projected run time at this load is 1 hour 32 minutes. More than enough to account for the rare and very brief power outages we experience at our home. UPS run time was not an important factor to me though. The ESXi Hypervisor and NAS are configured to power down gracefully under a supply power outage.
Summary
I’m more than happy with the combined power consumption. Sure, its till 140 watts running 24 x 7 But having the environment available to me when I ever I need it is very useful.